Surge protectors and power conditioners - Good idea or bad?

What else are you going to plug all those cords into? Power strips? They condition the noisy electric from the power company that causes lights to flicker occasionally. That power goes to your equipment. Wouldn't you want that smoothed out?

@cdc2 ... I live in South Florida where our summer thunderstorms are notorious destroyers of most everything electrical.and the thought of living without surge protectors and power conditioners is mostly terrifying for audio, video, computer and so forth. Fried two Velodyne 12" subs, fried a PS Audio power conditioner, fried two NHT subs and a couple of Blue Ray players. I used Tripplite surge and power conditioners on all my audio and video equipment but lets talk about the stereo system specifically. I upgraded from Tripplite to Audioquest Niagara 3000 in December with all the associated noise draining power cables. I’ll just say it was not an inexpensive upgrade and I’ve got my amps, tuner, CD/SACD, Streamer, DAC and Pre-amp on it. I live in a condo of a 168 unit building and between air-conditioners, fluorescent lights, refrigerators, microwaves, TVs and a ton of other electrical noise pollutants we have a ton of RFI and some EMI here to deal with as well. IOt made a significant difference to the plus side, sweeter more "real human" vocals, better imaging and sound stage layering and quieter black background. In my opinion it was a worthwhile upgrade at the level of resolution my system has. An added benefit is one switch turns everything on or off.  As a friend used to say about audio systems.. 80% of the sound costs 20% of the dollars, the other 20% of performance costs 80% of the dollars. Just my take on it.

  This is what I use for surge protection

Intermatic Smart Guard IG2240-IMSK Whole Home Surge Protector,Black

Intermatic's Smart Guard Whole House Surge Protective Device provides coverage of your big investment equipment, from appliances and computers, to HVAC equipment and TVs. This innovative SPD uses the IModule with LED lights for quick and easy indication when protection has been compromised. State-of-the-art TPMOV surge protection technology eliminates the potentially hazardous failure modes that are commonly associated with standard MOV technology.

• Six Modes of protection
• TPMOV surge protection technology
• Module Power Switch, included on IG2240-IMSK, enables convenient disconnection of power at the SPD when replacing IModules
• Includes three IModules with LED power and protection status lights
• IModules replace quickly and easily, eliminating the need to install a new SPD unit
• Tamper-proof IModule doors, will only open when IModule is being inserted
• Type 1 Enclosure for indoor applications in metal
• Includes the IG2200-FMK flush mount kit
• on Amazon 4.6/5 stars
  

Some of you may not have lightning problems but many of us do. We had five power outages last year due to lightning, including one lightning strike that blew up a transformer at the substation about two miles from my house. I have a whole house surge arrestor at the panel, and have a Furman IT-Reference 20i power line conditioner, surge protector with an isolation transformer.

I really don’t care if the Furman affects the "blackness," "holographic presentation," etc., and twenty other esoteric terms which I can’t hear. What I do care about is not blowing up a $5K preamp, $10K amp, and associated equipment.

Oh, and the guy that thinks lightning hits the highest object...look up the term "rolling sphere" as it applies to lightning. You’ll find out lighting is finding path with the least resistance to ground and not the highest object.

I live in Miami Beach.  I live in a newer house (2015).  We get lightning and storms all the time in the summer and a lightning strike blew my preamp and I had to send it in for repairs.  I then put a whole house surge protector in at the breaker panel and no more problems.  A cheap insurance policy to protect your equipment!